Plasma screens, speakers, light switches, electrical outlets, junction boxes and other components are conventionally mounted by cutting a hole in a wall or ceiling, inserting a bracket, and then seating component being installed to the bracket. Since the cutout is performed at the job site, these conventional installations invariably produce a gap between wall or ceiling and the component being installed. That gap is usually covered with a flange, which can be relatively small, as in the case of flanges used around the edges of the electrical boxes for ceiling lights, speakers, or relatively large, as in the case of face plates for electrical outlets, light switches or other in-wall controls.
It is also known to install wall and ceiling component using flangeless installations. In prior art FIGS. 1A and 1B, for example, a panel 10 is placed behind the wallboard 30. The speaker housing 16 extends out the back side of the panel 10 (i.e. inside the wall or ceiling), and a bracket 14 coupled to the panel 10 has a rim portion 14A that extends above (on the front side of the wall or ceiling) the panel 10 by a distance 15. The drywaller then cuts a hole in wallboard 30 up to the edge of the rim 14. Additional examples are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,032,708 to Popken et al. (April 2006), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,296,280 to Richie (October 1981). These and all other extrinsic materials identified herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
In the known flangeless installations, a bracket is placed within the opening, a component is seated to the bracket, and the wall or ceiling is finished (typically by plastering) up to the edge of the bracket. Frames are sometimes used in place of a bracket to seat the component, and such cases the wall or ceiling is finished to the edge of the frame rather than to the edge of the bracket. This strategy is often used in hanging windows and doors, and has been adapted to installing speakers by U.S. 2007/0051862 to Monti (March 2007). In other known flangeless installations, as shown by U.S. 2004/0218777 to Hagman (November 2004), a frame is placed within the opening, a component is seated to a panel (i.e. inside the wall) that couples the frame, and an active member without an opening couples the frame forming an acoustic chamber inside the wall, and the wall or ceiling is finished (typically by plastering) up to a perimeter region of the active member.
The grandparent of the present application Ser. No. 11/548,381 filed Oct. 11, 2006, introduced the idea of installing the mounting bracket into a panel rather than the ceiling or wall. The panel can be significantly, at least two or three times, larger than the size of the opening that receives the component, and in such cases the finishing takes place away from the opening, where the installer has a much easier time producing a superficially continuous junction.
In the '381 application, however, it was still contemplated that the bracket would have a rim that extends above the plane of the panel. That still requires the installer to apply a very thin layer of plaster or other finishing compound up to the rim. What is still needed are methods and apparatus that can achieve a flush-mount appearance in walls, ceilings, and other structures, in which little or even no finishing is required around the periphery of the opening.